Degrees of separation

In trying to create a balance of leadership in the final phase of my residency at The Ark, I brought both the work of the first three months and my own unfinished studio response, which was highly informed by the former, to four selected schools groups. I presented the concepts and processes within as open for discussion and development in whatever way that might occur. With one group in particular what occurred was an unusual experience for me. They examined what I presented, became interested in a single undeveloped strand within my own studio response and over the subsequent six weeks, created, with my assistance, an installation of individual works. It was a manifestation of my original undeveloped thought that I could not have imagined. I feel in some way that it is mine and yet remain aware that each piece is very personal and individual to the child that created it and in fact belongs to them.

While Ann Henderson works with the children, she maintains a studio practice of her own ideas in development. She clearly divides the two, and yet as they inform one another, she grapples with the boundaries of this division. They are gray areas of ownership, both in terms of ideas and actual work. Similarly, when I had gone back to my studio in the middle of my residency at The Ark, I had found it difficult to think in terms of a separate studio practice, yet the ideas and indeed the making from the previous three months were hard to separate from my own thoughts and processes as an artist. I found that I could not make some complete, polished piece of work in complete isolation from such a high intensity communication process. Making the installation with the group felt much more natural and yet was difficult to define in terms of ownership.

Sometimes the extent to which an artist maintains a studio practice separately to their work with children, can inform the level of collaboration with which they approach their work with children. Gareth Kennedy comments that he does not see his own practice as being ‘communicable’ outside of the context in which it is made. While there may be similarities in process and there is an underlying rational in carrying out this process, he sees his studio practice and his work with young people as ‘two-different hats’. Meanwhile, Ruby Wallis is currently witnessing a correlation between her own studio practice and her engagement with children in Rathcabbin National School, by which she is very excited. She talks about the advantage of following a theme that is natural to her and of using strengths and interests when working with children and young people, to perhaps create more meaningful work. Fiona Whelan talks about the transition from artist as painter to artist who creates as part of a collective with young people and youth workers. Her work in Rialto is her practice.

Image courtesy of Yvonne Cullivan: Still from "Memory of Place" video and willow installation, created in the artists' studio in response to her work with children at The Ark, Cultural Center for Children, 2007